Smile as I Fade Away
by Sadistic Sin
Summary: Caught between lies and constant hate, Naruto does the unthinkable. Killing enemies, Kyuubi and himself was only the beginning. His death brings back dead Uchiha and Demon hybrids, while his soul walks his hell of invisibility and silent screams. SasuNaru


Heh, this is a story I wrote last years summer and never finished so I'm typing it up now, I suppose. I'll probably end up changing it a little to fit, but I thought, why not. Especially when I drew pictures and stuff and I wrote it in the presence of my Grandma and Granddad, who have passed away earlier this year. Whenever I remember this story, I think of them, as weird as it sounds. Strange, seeing as I would never have told them about homosexual relationships being incorporated into the storyline. They did love it when I drew, though…

In no way, shape or form do I own or have rights to the show Naruto or any of it's characters.

NARUTO

"I-I can't.

The surrounding people remained unaware of his quiet words. Shouts and tension flowed between them easily; their own situations and predicaments drowning out unrelated people. He wasn't important. Uzumaki Naruto was and always will be a tool, a sacrifice for power. He slumped to the ground harshly, clutching his arms as tears fell relentlessly from his eyes. He wretched and threw up. Still to the backs of the others on his side, only the opposing enemies saw him and his actions just taken. He shook. Kakashi and Sakura had raced forward earlier, where as he remained behind some, ordered to stay in the safety of their protection and too within his own thoughts to care to argue.

The opposing forces were two groups. The Akatsuki; Itachi and Kisami with another that he presumed to be named Zetsuu. Then there was Orochimaru, Kabuto, seven sound ninja…and Sasuke. The one who noticed his pitiful and weak act was none other than Itachi. He had a feeling that Sai knew, but had decided to ignore it. After all, he was only eight feet away. Whether it was because he found him pathetic or was showing an act of rare kindness by not bringing attention to it, he wouldn't know.

"Hm, Naruto-kun, is something the matter?" He used _that_ voice. The one that teased with the prospect of caring. A sweetness that doesn't exist; quite sadistic, really.

"I'm your opponent." Sasuke hissed.

Naruto smiled a little. There had been a strange, silent agreement between the three sides to watch the fight. At, least until one got into trouble. He was sure that no one would stand around and wait silently as a finishing blow struck, that could have been prevented. It was like an unwritten understanding and mutual respect of the fight. The Sasuke just then sounded like the old Sasuke; the one only Itachi could reach now. The Sasuke that Naruto craved beyond his own understanding of the word and why he'd even want to.

Many of the surrounding Shinobi's attention turned to the fallen Jinchuriki. Sakura moved toward the blond, only managing two steps before Kakashi's hand rested lightly on her shoulder and shook his head in a negative of progression. Naruto turned his head away in shame. Was he forever to be singled out amongst the rest and be a shadow for the only life he'd ever wanted? He couldn't live that way.

Itachi had persistently wanted the Kyuubi, Sasuke had continuously wanted to destroy his older brother and Naruto, Naruto wanted his friend home, safe in the walls of Konoha and together with him again. But it had never mattered what Naruto wanted. Sasuke, with his hollow laugh, had attacked him full on. There was no regret, uncertainty or even recognition in those eyes. He was nothing to those eyes anymore - nothing but an enemy to kill. He couldn't and didn't move as the sword came toward him, unwilling to believe.

Had been the words that forced his head up. He didn't even know Itachi owned a sword. Degrading and unneeded words were thrown as he merely looked on. The triangle was complete in this clearing and now. 

"Naruto!" Kakashi addressed, warning the blond to rise and dismiss his fear and insecurities. What was he to do when he never wanted to stand up and fight again? He was so tired, too tired. "Yeah." He near whispered to his team commander.

"Dobe." The word chilled him, laughing in his demeaning way. "That name really suits you." His voice, that sombre baritone, drowned out anything Kakashi would have said, with it's spell upon him. "Pathetic." When had the words of one, singular person meant so much more than anyone else's? When one view was all that mattered? Naruto laughed. It was an empty sound. Sasuke's confident smirk was replaced with Oroachimaru's and Kabuto's, as it faded from his face.

"Naruto-kun?" Sai asked the distant boy, noticing the surprise of his sensei and the tears of Sakura, disregarding the elder Uchiha's odd reaction of silent askance.

"When there's no hope…what do you do?" An absent question for an absent mind.

"That's a bit deep for you, eh, Naruto?" Sasuke's smirk returned.

"I can't do it anymore!" Naruto screamed, rising, the fox in his head changing from torturing to frantic with the one decision. "Death for existing, death for revenge, death for power and what? World domination? But, I choose none!"

"Hn." Scowl. "My hand, my rules." Attempts on his life until the end.

"Naruto…" Care in his last moments.

"No more! Death for release, death for fucking freedom. I choose death, for an end."

Before he's even finished, he jumped further back from his would-be murderers and flew through hand signs, signifying a jutsu enemies prepared for. Naruto pulled out two scrolls, forcing them to spin around him in excessive continuance. Kakashi's eye became wide in recognition as enemies became confused with the lack of attack, when two kunai were drawn out and slashed across Naruto's own stomach, determination burning his eyes with a light so few had been seeing recently. Blood soaked kunai tore cleanly through the middle of both scrolls, activating the technique and proving help useless.

The split second the kunai sliced through the body of the scroll, a black encasement grew from the slit, glistening with red and binding together in an impenetrable sphere of darkness, drowning the technique's uttered name with its ferocity, along with the sunshine blond and his desecrated seal. Shouts of his name, Naruto could not hear and therefore, did not care. Subjecting himself to a pain so vast and intense it could never be described, it was the beginning of the end for Uzumaki Naruto.

An end he's craved unconsciously for the longest time.

NARUTO

Haha, I killed Naruto. Seriously though, that can't happen. Where would the sadistic fun and SasuNaru be if I killed off the main character? Naruto will turn up in the oddest of places. Death and secrets in the next chapter.


End file.
